Sunday, January 11, 2009

More Good Stuff

Things are slowly but steadily improving around here. I'm still enjoying my job (as long as I'm not getting speeding tickets), and have recently added another bullet to my resume.

A few years ago, I began doing copy editing for a friend of mine who publishes a monthly online newsletter for her business. She recently forwarded me an email from a friend of hers. This friend has a friend (stay with me here folks) who has an online lifestyle magazine and needed a copy editor. She is Italian-Brazilian, a brilliant photographer and artist, and very creative. The challenge she faces is the fact that English is the 5th or 6th language she learned. So, although she has wonderful ideas and stories, she struggles with fluency in her writing. Previous copy editors had a habit of changing her writing so much that she felt it was no longer her own.

This has turned out to be a good fit for me. A lifetime surrounded by friends and neighbors from many different countries, and a decade working with students (some of whom were struggling to read and write in English) has given me a level of comfort and confidence that enables me to feel like I "get" what my client is trying to say in her writing. I can clarify her work and give it better fluency without changing her unique voice.

I have to admit, however, that she lives in a very different world than my own. Check it out at joellelifestyle.com and keep in mind that I have only recently acquired this gig, so posts written prior to the new year have not been touched by my hands!

1 comment:

Sara @ Domestically Challenged said...

Cool, I am going to check it out. About the facebook thing? Way addicting! It does get better after time.